Interesting that the writer calls it the simple truth. The article quoted Obama as saying that “America was actually on track to becoming completely debt free” in 2000. But the truth according to the US treasury is that in 2000 US government debt was over 5 1/2 trillion. That was not in great shape in the year 2000. The US has not been in “great shape” since before WW1 when it had no debt. That, is the simple truth.

Mike on
April 15th, 2011 at 0:39:

@Gene, I think you misunderstand the statement. He did not say the U.S. was debt free, he said they were *on track* to being debt free. Although we might say today that debt reduction to zero would have been unlikely, we cannot say it would have been impossible. Take a look at this

Neil McAllister on using Flash on the Motorola Xoom. Video was choppy, it made scrolling web pages difficult, form-based apps barely worked, and he “had no luck” with games. But he did get to see animated Flash web ads.

The high court has ruled that the Metropolitan police broke the law in the way they "kettled" protesters at the G20 demonstrations in 2009.

In a landmark judgment on Thursday, high court judges found for protesters who had claimed police treated them unfairly. It also criticised the use of force by officers.

In the case, the court heard that officers used punches to the face, slaps and shields against demonstrators who police chiefs accept had nothing to do with violence. The judgment does not strike down the police tactic of kettling or mass detention, but it will be seen as a rebuff to the Met.

The judgment places limits on the use of kettling. It says: "The police may only take such preventive action as a last resort catering for situations about to descend into violence."

Well, how convenient of the Court to provide a ready made excuse for next time. “But Your Honor, we were sure it was about to descend into violence!”

Newly released Federal Aviation Administration documents and audiotapes shed a scary new light on a bizarre incident late last year during which U.S. Senator James Inhofe landed his Cessna on a closed runway at a south Texas airport, scattering construction workers who ran for their lives as the politician’s plane hopscotched over them and six vehicles.

[..]

Boyd also said that Inhofe showed little contrition following the close call. “He come over here and started being like, ‘What the hell is this? I was supposed to have unlimited airspace.’”

“In a recorded conversation with Lee Williams, an FAA quality assurance specialist, airport manager Marshall Reece tore into Inhofe’s piloting. “I’ve got over 50 years flying, three tours of Vietnam,” Reece said, “and I can assure you I have never seen such a reckless disregard for human life in my life.” He then added, “Something needs to be done. This guy is famous for these violations.””

Sounds very much like the textbook description of a sociopath: Lack of remorse or empathy for other humans, tendency to violate boundaries and rights of other people, irresponsible behaviour, disregard for other peoples safety, expressions of aggression and verbal abuse; inadequate control of anger and temper.

News accounts on the latest federal budget deal gave the numbers in a vacuum, e.g., “The deal cuts $38 billion from last year’s budget. It’s being called the largest domestic spending cut in U.S. history” (source). How can an individual voter make sense of quantities that are ordinarily written in scientific notation? I think the easiest way is to divide everything by 100,000,000 (10^8).

[..]

We have a family that is spending $38,200 per year. The family’s income is $21,700 per year. The family adds $16,500 in credit card debt every year in order to pay its bills. After a long and difficult debate among family members, keeping in mind that it was not going to be possible to borrow $16,500 every year forever, the parents and children agreed that a $380/year premium cable subscription could be terminated. So now the family will have to borrow only $16,120 per year.

He left out part of the analogy – the family cut the cable bill but still decided to buy a bunch of AK-47’s and ammo along with boxes of hand grenades to throw at random (but most likely brown skinned) neighbors.

Steffen on
April 15th, 2011 at 9:27:

To continue the analogy: They earn only $21700 per year, because they are forced by their malicious uncle (who himself owns a huge company and is a good business partner to the family’s employer) to cut down voluntarily the wages they earn.

He argues it would otherwise be an unbearable burden on their employer, he would get bankrupt immediately, and the whole economy would go down. By working mostly for free, providing their employer with invaluable services like infrastructure building etc, he says that their company will have then more money to invest, the money would “trickle down”, more people would become employed, and the economy will flourish… Says their uncle. Who also threatens them, if they don’t follow his advice, he will freeze their bank accounts until they do what he wants.

After two years of false starts and protracted legal wrangling, President Barack Obama signed an executive order Tuesday authorizing the transfer of all 172 Guantánamo detainees to the next chief executive of the United States of America.

[..]

“This will not be an easy process by any means, but all of the detainees should be transferred by 2012, or 2016 at the very latest.”